B.C. food producers relieved, hopeful as China lowers tariffs on Canadian goods
Whether some products, like geoducks, will be part of the deal remains unclear at this time
Farmers on land and sea across B.C. are pleased to learn tariffs on exports of their products to China will be lowered in coming weeks, but some say high tariffs should never have been an issue to begin with.
China imposed 25 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian products in March 2025, in response to Canada slapping a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs in 2024.
For many British Columbian food producers, that meant having to reduce the sale price of their goods to get China to buy them, if they continued to purchase at all; according to B.C. Crab Fishermen’s Association executive director Megan Eadie, the value of Dungeness crabs, for example, was down 34 per cent compared to the year prior.
“It's a loss of about $25.3 million in those months, and the harvesters have really felt that,” she told CBC’s On The Island.
She said some harvesters were considering closing up shop, but the news of the trade deal “came at just the right time.”
“Our crab season starts in April,” Eadie said. “Crab fishermen tend to think in terms of that season when they're planning their business, so now they're able to think about a 2026 season that might be back to normal and that they might therefore have been able to weather this storm.”
Eadie was one of many happy to hear that, following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trade mission to China, Beijing will remove tariffs on Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crab and peas as of March until at least the end of 2026. According to the Canadian government, this will improve market access to $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural goods.
Tariffs on canola seed will be reduced to 15 per cent.
“It really feels like a huge win. Crab fishermen are feeling hopeful for the first time since March," Eadie said.
B.C. Grain Producers Association president Malcolm Odermatt also welcomes the news, but says tariffs never should have soared that high to begin with.
“There’s good relief however it’s frustrating that it even had to occur in the first place,” he said.
“China was very slow in putting on these tariffs, they gave us tons of warning, and the federal government didn’t listen and they went through.”
Some products uncertain
When Katie Lindsay with the B.C. Underwater Harvesters Association heard the tariff news, she was doing “cartwheels.”
But the celebration quickly died down as she read further to find that geoducks — large saltwater clams known for their long siphon — aren’t specifically listed as a product that will be impacted by the changes. Instead, the preliminary agreement between the two countries indicates “other products.”
“We’re still not really sure what those products are,” Lindsay said.
She said geoduck harvesters remain hopeful they will be included once the deal is finalized.
And while hope and relief are a common theme among food producers who have been affected by tariffs between China and Canada, Northpine Farmers Institute president Wayne Kuzak said there’s more to do in regard to canola farming — in particular, he’d like to see more canola processing done locally.
“We’re not out of the woods yet by any means,” he said.
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With files from Matt Preprost, Darren Major and CBC Radio